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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVenezuela conducts de facto devaluation
Venezuelas Finance Ministry sold $200 million on a new secondary exchange system without disclosing the exchange rate for winning bids. The auction awarded dollars to 383 companies, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website. Only companies registered with the Cadivi currency board could participate in todays auction.
Acting President Nicolas Maduros government introduced the new foreign exchange mechanism ahead of an April 14 presidential election in a bid to halt the bolivars decline on the black market and reduce shortages of goods in local stores. The bolivar has depreciated 19 percent to about 23 bolivars per dollar on the black market since Feb. 8, when the currency was devalued 32 percent on the Cadivi system.
The only reason not to disclose the FX rate is because they dont want to concede a de facto second devaluation in the middle of an election campaign, Benjamin Ramsey, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said in an e-mailed statement. I think its safe to assume it was above the official 6.3, otherwise they would have disclosed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-27/venezuela-sells-200-mln-in-auction-without-revealing-fx-rate.html
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)many votes away from Maduro - a large part of the populace isn't concerned with issues like devaluation which are poorly if at all understood. The decline in consumer goods and foodstuffs might but you can be sure that between now and election a whole bunch of petrodollars will be spent to make the shortages disappear, albeit for a short time.